> I'm just asking what's so much better about accepting a given rate at Google as opposed to a startup. Below-market rates? Not sure if that was implied, but t

> I'm just asking what's so much better about accepting a given rate at Google as opposed to a startup. Below-market rates? Not sure if that was implied, but that's certainly not the case I'm talking about. I'm not suggesting that's the case, but you need to ask the candidates who we've identified that are doing so. We've been losing people to AMZN/GOOG (MS less so) who will often have salary offers matched + bonus structures that exceed ours, plus benefits that jump way over anything we can provide. What's so much better about that? You'd have to ask the candidates. Not sure where the discussion went off, but I'm not suggesting that options are the end-all-be-all for early stage employees. I agree that the chances of them holding any value are low. But this I would say: if they really are this gigantic crap-shoot, why on earth do startups continue to offer them to candidates?